Centro para ninos

Squished on the bus

I've been feeling a little off today. I think it's a combination of poor nutrition, poor rest, and the heat. Anyway, I wasn't feeling well during class today, but I'm feeling better now. I'm not sure why.

For our excursion today, we went to a center for children. It is located in a poor neighborhood on the North West side of Esteli. (By the way, it has started raining. It's a good thing I came home when I did because I washed my skirt this morning and it would just have gotten soaked if I hadn't brought it in. Though I was wanting to go for a walk . . . maybe the rain won't last long). We took a bus to get to the center . . . my first Nicaraguan bus experience. It wasn't too bad and only cost 3 Cordobas (22 Cordobas to a dollar) for each direction.

The center was established in the seventies by an Italian Catholic priest and was originally a refuge for children. Since then it has expanded into a center where children can go when they're not in school. They get food and lessons in things that they don't necessarily learn at school, such as English, computers, and music.

Center for children

The kids seemed really happy there, so it must be working. They have 600 students in that school. 300 in the morning (the kids who have school in the afternoon) and 300 in the afternoon (the kids who have school in the morning). But they don't have room for all the kids in the neighborhood and they focus mainly on the most vulnerable of the kids.

Everyone there started talking to us in Spanish then stopped and asked, do they understand Spanish? It was kind of interesting. But maybe they're not used to foreigners being able to understand Spanish.

Children dancing in the center

We met one of the English teachers. He is Nicaraguan, learned English in the university and has never been to the U.S. or England. It is always hardest to learn a language when you never have the chance to use it regularly. But considering that, he spoke very well, at least he spoke well the little he said to us in English. He mainly spoke to us in Spanish, but we heard him conducting an English class as we were leaving. It was fun to hear the kids trying to pronounce English words. You never realize how difficult some things can be to say until you hear other people trying. For example, my name is apparently REALLY hard for people to say. Even when I say it slowly, they just give me a blank stare. Now I understand why so many of my professors just call me Raquel. Even if they get the sound right, they don't ever get the accent right. It ends up sounding like a combination of Raquel and Rachel. But it doesn't bother me which is odd because my brother used to call me Raquel when I was younger to make me mad.
We took a bus back as well, and now I am sitting in my room, watching the news in Spanish, and listening to the heavy downpour on my tin roof. It always sounds so much worse in this room. The rain is refreshing, but I don't like the mosquitoes and other insects that come with it.

Art projects that the children do at the center.

Computer center for learning technology.

The neighborhood around the center.

The English teacher.